LETTER FROM A YOUNG SCIENTIST: IT IS INHERENT TO HUMANS TO DEPART – SCIENCE, HUMANITIES, AND THE IMPASSE OF RETURN

Abstract

This essay, presented in the form of a letter, proposes a critical reflection on the limits of biological reductionism in contemporary science, taking as its starting point the need to rearticulate different forms of knowledge. Based on a formative trajectory situated in the field of health sciences, the author questions the predominance of a technical-productivist logic that tends to privilege already stabilized answers, often at the expense of formulating questions. This shift is not trivial, as it contributes to the impoverishment of scientific reflection and widens the gap between science and society. It is in this context that the movement toward the humanities appears less as a rupture and more as an attempt at epistemological and formative expansion, albeit marked by persistent resistance. Throughout the text, references from philosophy, literature, and the history of science are mobilized to challenge the persistence of a mechanistic and dualistic matrix, historically associated with modern thought, and its effects on the fragmentation of knowledge. At the same time, it is argued that many contemporary initiatives aimed at humanizing science end up being limited to compliance with normative frameworks, without implying a deeper transformation of scientific practices. In this scenario, literature is presented as a privileged space for the exercise of critical reflection, insofar as it enables engagement with dimensions of human experience that escape strictly technical logic.